Fire and Dynamite
by southernbangel
Summary: You make me nervous, you make my heart beat… You are fire, you are dynamite


**Summary: You make me nervous, you make my heart beat… You are fire you are dynamite**

 **AN: OKAY. So this is a weird one. Years and years ago, I posted a story _rapunzel (i do anything for you)_ , a "five times" fic that explored four ways Nathan could have proposed to Haley and one way he did. Ever since, I've wanted to do a reversal of that story from Haley's POV. It's been bouncing around in my head even more lately so I decided to go ahead and write it. As always, word of warning: this is super cheesy and fluffy and not very good. Similar phrases are often repeated from rapunzel, if not outright stated verbatim. I don't write Haley's POV very well at all, I feel more comfortable writing Nathan so there you go. (Ringing endorsement of this story, huh?) (Did I spell check or really read over this? Not so much.)**

 **ANYWAY. I hope you enjoy.**

 **(And after this I'll be working on the next chapter of _In Your Eyes_.)**

* * *

 _i._

It's amazing how nervous she isn't.

She should be, she's about to stand up in a crowd of hundreds and give her valedictory speech. She's never been one for crowds, that's more her boyfriend's thing, so she should be a ball of nerves right now. She feels like she is standing on the edge of a precipice, but rather than being afraid, she feels a certainty she has only felt one other time before: that her life is about to change in the best way imaginable.

She takes a deep breath and walks to the podium after Principal Turner introduces her. Glancing into the crowd, she catches Nathan's eye and feels an immense wave of happiness wash over her at the sight of her boyfriend. He is fidgeting in his seat, rubbing his hands on his pants repeatedly, and Haley inwardly chuckles at his antsy behavior. The biggest day of their lives thus far and Nathan is acting like a child waiting for summer vacation to finally start.

During her speech, she implores her fellow graduates to hold onto hope and the promises of the future. She tells them to find the one thing or person or idea one is most passionate about and pursuing that dream with vigor. As she stares into Nathan's piercing blue eyes, she knows she has found hers.

In a way, she has always known.

She's loved Nathan Scott for as long as she can remember. From meeting in the neighborhood park as young kids, to regular campouts in her backyard, through the nightmare of the death of her older brother Scott when Haley was in middle school and the trauma of his parents' nasty divorce, to the ups and downs of middle school and high school with Nathan as the star basketball player and Haley the shy and studious tutor, the one constant in her life was Nathan. People dismissed him, them, as nothing more than a childhood crush or a high school romance, but Haley has always known that he is more than just a boy she dated.

He is _the_ boy.

She knew it when they first kissed one afternoon as five-year-olds on a dare from Taylor, Haley's older sister. She knew it when they first held hands in second grade while riding the school bus on a field trip. She knew it after their first _real_ kiss in eighth grade in the coat closet of Abby Jenkins's basement rec room during a game of Seven Minutes in Heaven. She knew it after they first said "I love you" in ninth grade, and when they first broke up and immediately got back together in tenth grade after Nathan became jealous of her friendship with her lab partner. She really knew it when they first made love during spring break of their junior year of high school.

So as she speaks to her classmates, of hope and love and promises and the future, she is really speaking to one person in particular. He is as much a part of her as she is of him, and when she looks into the future, all she sees is Nathan.

Once she finishes her speech, she sits down and watches as her friends and fellow students march across the stage to receive their diplomas. Her grin is as wide and bright as it's ever been when Nathan accepts his diploma. While she is proud of herself of working hard and achieving her goal of becoming valedictorian, it doesn't come close to the pride she feels watching Nathan walk across the stage, knowing how much he struggled in school and how much work he put into overcoming those struggles.

After the ceremony is over, she makes her way through the crowd to Nathan, who is sitting on one of the chairs set up on the floor of the gymnasium. She notices he seems a bit off as she approaches but in her excitement over the day, she begins to ramble as she drops into his lap.

"Can you believe we're finally high school graduates? How was my speech? I was so nervous that I would screw it up somehow but I don't think I did. Did you hear Brooke yell out, 'Go Tutor Girl'? Well, I'm sure you did because how could you not? That girl has some lungs on her, which I guess is why she was such a good cheerleader," Haley rambles as her arm automatically rests across his shoulders as his wrap around her waist. "Nathan? Nathan, are you okay?"

He nods and clears his throat, his eyes darting around. "Uh, Hales—"

"Yeah, babe?" She asks as she runs her hand through his dark hair. "Are you sure you're okay? You look kinda, I don't know, strange."

"I-I'm fine. Look, Hales, you know how much I love you, and now that we've graduated high school and are getting ready to go to college, I think it's time we… What I mean is, I… well, uh, I want to—"

Oh hell no, he is _not_ doing what she thinks he is doing. Not today, not on graduation. She's not sure she has ever been so angry at him before. Maybe the time he drunkenly showed up at her house after a fight and attempted to climb the tree outside her bedroom window before falling and nearly breaking his neck.

How are he do this to her? To them? She knows he's nervous about them going to separate colleges and having a long-distance relationship but she thought they had resolved that issue.

Her voice is low and angry, her eyes ablaze as she jumps from his lap and turns to face him.

"Nathan Royal Scott, I cannot believe you would do this, and on today of all days! What the hell is wrong with you? You are such an ass and I—"

"Wait, what?" He yells as he stands up and Haley feels her anger ratchet up a notch at the fact that he has the audacity to get mad at _her_ when he's the one who's about to break up with her.

"You're breaking up with me, aren't you? On graduation day? God, Nathan, I know you're worried about us being accepted to different colleges but I thought we had worked that out. But no, you're just going to give up—"

"Haley, are you insane?"

Haley swears she sees red. How dare he get upset with her! She's the one who should be upset.

"Do not insult me, Nathan Scott! Not when you're breaking up with me. On graduation day. Ass!" She spits out.

"I am _not_ breaking up with you. I'm trying to—"

"To what?" Haley demands, arms crossed over her chest as she glares at him. "Let me down easy?"

"No, I—"

"And seriously, at graduation? You decide to break up with me on our graduation day?" She cannot believe the nerve of him. Jackass.

"You tell him, Haley," a random voice cheers. They both look around, surprised to find a crowd has gathered around them. A crowd mostly comprised of females. Angry females. Several of whom look suspiciously like Haley's best friends and sisters, and Haley turns back to Nathan, a smug grin on her face.

Nathan grabs her arm and pulls her to an empty corner of the gym in an attempt to get away from the angry crowd. No such luck. The women follow them, standing a few yards away, the furious expressions on their faces matching Haley's.

"Hales—"

"Don't call me Hales," she snaps, wrenching her arm from his grip. She is so mad, she wants to scream and cry and hit and she can feel the tears pricking her eyes. She had a feeling that her life was about to change but not _this_ way. Never this way.

"Hales," Nathan pleads, reaching for her hands and holding them tightly in his own. "I am not breaking up with you. Far from it, actually."

It takes everything in her not to wrench her grip from his and slap his face. Shaking her head, Haley glances at him, her eyes watering with unshed tears.

"Nathan, I know you're the only guy I've dated but I've seen enough movies to know that when a conversation starts with 'You know how much I love you,' it usually doesn't mean anything good!"

"Well, this time it does," Nathan assures her.

"Oh yeah?" she snorts in disbelief.

"Yeah."

He releases one of her hands before reaching into his pocket and drops to his knee. Her loud gasp is echoed by the crowd a few feet from them, but all Haley can hear is the loud rushing of blood in her ears. Her heart feels like it's going to beat out of her chest.

"Hales, I—" he starts before she interrupts him.

"What are you doing?" He can't be serious, can he? Wasn't he just breaking up with her and now he's proposing?

"What I've been trying to do for ten minutes," he tells her, gripping onto her hand like she's the only thing keeping him from drowning. "Haley James, I've always loved you. For as long as I can remember, the only thing I've been sure of is you. I don't know what life holds for me, or for us, but the one thing I do know, that I am absolutely sure of, is that I will always love you. Will you marry me?"

"Oh Nathan," Haley whispers as tears spill down her cheeks. "Yes, of course my answer is yes!"

With the widest grin she has ever seen on his face, Nathan gets to his feet, wrapping her in his arms and swinging her around. She feels like her heart is going to explode from happiness.

She knew that today her life was going to change in the best way imaginable.

 _ii._

If you had asked her two years ago if this would be her life, she would have laughed. Never in a million years would she have imagined she'd willingly attend a basketball game, and not only attend, but scream and cheer her head off as well. She's not a sports girl, never has been. Or at least she wasn't until she met him.

It was an inauspicious start: they met when he quite literally ran into her and knocked her to the ground. She was on her way to class and looking through her book to make sure she had read everything she needed when she felt a large body slamming into her.

"Ouch! What the hell? Watch where you're going, jackass!" She exclaimed from the ground, her book knocked out of her hands. She glanced up to see a tall, dark-haired boy standing above her, the ends of his headphones trailing underneath the collar of his sweat-soaked t-shirt.

"Maybe if you took your nose out of your book, you would have seen me," the guy retorted.

What. A. Jackass.

Sure, he was incredibly good-looking, his sweat-slickened skin glistening in the bright sun, but his attitude just screamed "arrogant jock" as his eyes ran over her. Haley rolled her eyes; she was not a fan of jocks, especially ones who acted like they were God's gift to the world. (Even if he was the most gorgeous guy she had ever seen.)

Annoyed, she shot out a retort. "Oh please, you come skipping—"

"I was _not_ skipping."

"-skipping around the corner not paying attention. And you're too busy checking me out to even help me up! Jerk!"

She hated to admit it, but she couldn't quite ignore the frisson of excitement that raced through her as he looked her over. He was a jackass, but he was a hot jackass. Still, she was not going to fall into those deep blue eyes, eyes as blue as the summer sky, eyes that she felt could pierce—

No. She was _not_ doing this.

She was surprised when the jock leaned down to help her stand up. She inwardly gasped at the near electric shock that ran through her when his slightly callused hand grabbed hers. As she got to her feet, she stared into those bright blue eyes and felt herself falling….

 _No_ , she told herself. _Haley, you are not doing this. Not with Nathan Scott, the star basketball player._

a _Haley, Haley_

"So the jackass does have manners after all. Of course, he has to be reminded to help the girl he carelessly ran over, but it's a start," she said.

As the guy continued to stare at her, she studied him in return. His skin was a burnished gold, obviously from long hours in the sun. His dark hair was cut close but still long enough for hands to grab onto. Her mouth watered at his tall, muscular frame and for a moment she imagined herself climbing that long body…

 _Stop it,_ she inwardly screamed to herself. _You are not here for this!_

But as his eyes raked over her, his gaze hungry, she felt a flutter in her stomach she hadn't felt in years, if ever. When his eyes locked with hers with an intensity she had never been on the receiving end of before, her nerves jangled with anticipation. Her mind whirled with possibilities that she never really imagined before. She was too focused on her studies to give much thought to romance. And certainly not with the most popular guy on campus.

The impact with the ground must have been harder than she thought. Maybe she hit her head and didn't realize it? That could be the only explanation for the thoughts that ran through her brain.

Haley James didn't do romance. She did schoolwork, hard work, determination. Not romance.

And not with Nathan Scott….

But there was something about him. Sure, his attitude screamed "overconfident jock," but as she stared into his eyes, her heart pounding like she had just run a marathon, an inner voice was whispering that maybe he was different. Maybe there was more to him and maybe she wanted to find out if there was.

"Listen…."

"Haley," she supplied.

"Listen, Haley," Nathan said, "I'm sorry for running into you and for, uh…"

"Being an ass?" Haley grinned, unable to resist teasing him. She nearly lost her breath when he returned her grin.

What the hell was happening to her?

"Yeah," he laughed, shaking his head in apology. "I'm sorry for being an ass." His grin widened and her knees nearly buckled at the sight.

Okay, she had to get out of here before she did something she would regret. Like kiss him or fall in love with him…

"Thanks for the apology, but I really have to go. I'm probably late for class already and I hate to be late," she said as she bent down to gather her books that were as scattered as her thoughts. "I would say it was nice running into you, but I'm not sure 'nice' is the word to describe it. Painful, maybe, since I'm pretty sure I have a bruise on my ass now. And no, you can't check it out for me," she laughed when he opened his mouth to respond, although she was tempted to let him try.

Seriously, she had to get here _now_.

"I-I wasn't going to say that actually, but if you do need someone to check, I'd be happy to."

Her cheeks flamed with equal parts embarrassment and arousal and she ducked her head in attempt to hide. Once she felt her cheeks were back to a normal color, she cleared her throat and looked up again.

Big mistake, as their eyes locked and suddenly her stomach felt like she was on the most exciting roller coaster ever.

"Thanks for the offer, but I think I'll be okay. Maybe I'll see you around again, but promise me you won't knock me over," she said with a smile.

"I promise," Nathan said with a laugh and her heart jumped to her throat.

She had to get out of her now or else she would throw him down and rip his clothes off in the middle of the academic quad.

She turned and walked away, inwardly cheering herself for remaining strong and berating herself for running away from… well, she didn't know what, but she knew it could have been _something_.

"Wait, Haley!" He called after her, jogging to her when she stopped and turned around, her pulse racing. "I didn't introduce myself. My name is Nath—"

"Nathan Scott, I know," she interrupted with a smile. "Even though I may have my nose in a book, I do know the star player of the basketball team. See you around, Nathan."

And as suddenly as he entered her life, he was gone.

That could have been the end of it. That _should_ have been the end of it. Except Nathan Scott was nothing if not determined, and a couple of weeks later, he managed to track her down (he told her later it involved numerous favors traded for any bit of information on who she was and finally, no small amount of begging once he tracked down her suitemate). She had been thinking about him since their first encounter, kicking herself for not going for it and instead just walking away. She felt as if she had let something great slip right through her fingers.

So when he finally found her again and asked her out, she accepted, and after that first date, they were inseparable. And the former high school tutor and resident bookworm who had never attended a school athletic event while at college soon found herself at every basketball game, nearly rivaling the cheerleaders in her enthusiasm.

And now here she sits, at Nathan's last home game, surrounded by his family, watching as the seniors are honored at halftime. Each player is given the opportunity to speak, and Haley can't help but tear up as she watches the guys she has come to know so well thank their families and friends and teammates as they say goodbye to a significant part of their lives. She laughs when Trey Ballard cracks jokes about his fellow seniors. She smiles when Brian Davis and Adam Franklin thank the fans for their support.

Then it is Nathan's turn and she can't fight the butterflies that swirl in her stomach whenever she sees him. It's been that way for two years and she hopes it never stops.

"I just want to thank everyone for coming out tonight to support the team and especially us seniors at our last game," Nathan begins. "It's been an honor to play for you, and without the support of my coaches, my teammates, and my family and friends, I couldn't have done it. So, thank you," he says. Haley notices the catch in his voice as the crowd cheers for the star player.

Waiting for the applause to die down, he takes a deep breath and searches the crowd for a specific pair of deep brown eyes. When he finds them, he smiles and her heart is near to bursting with the love she feels for him.

"This is an important night for the seniors. It's our last home game, one of the last times we'll be together as a team. After this, we'll soon graduate. Some of us may be off to the NBA, some of us will pursue other opportunities, but tonight could be considered the first night of the rest of our lives. And for me, if this is the start of the rest of my life, I want it to start with one person."

Haley's heart beats in triple time as he continues.

"Two years ago, I ran into the woman who would end up changing my life forever. I mean, I literally ran into her. Not my finest moment, that's for sure," he grins as the crowd laughs and Haley joins in, remembering that day as clearly as if it had happened yesterday. "She told me in no uncertain terms that I was a jerk," more laughter from the audience, "and she was right. She played it cool, only telling me her first name, and I thought I'd never see her again. I finally tracked her down and asked her out. She must have hit her head when we first met because she agreed to go out with me."

Tears begin to gather as he stares at her, his gaze burning into her as it did the first day they met.

"Although she was the first one to fall when we met, I've been falling for her every day since. She's the greatest person I know, the one who has stood by me through the good days and the bad, and has never wavered. I love her more every day, and when tonight was approaching, I knew exactly what I wanted to do tonight."

Her boy certainly has a way with words. Haley gasps and the tears fall as Nathan bends down on one knee, opening the small box in his hand. The gym is as silent as a tomb as they all wait for the question Haley has wanted to hear since their second date.

"Haley James, will you marry me?"

Her slightly sobbed "Yes!" breaks the silence and the crowd cheers as she rushes from her seat into Nathan's arms.

As Nathan kisses her slow and deep, she prays she never stops falling for him.

 _iii._

She's not sure why she agreed to this blind date. She doesn't do blind dates. She doesn't do dates hardly at all, not after her last boyfriend turned out to be a total asshole.

But Brooke swears that Lucas's brother is perfect for Haley. Haley adores Lucas but he's a little… broody, for her tastes. She sometimes wonders how her bright and bubbly best friend ended up with someone so quiet and intense, but when she sees them together, she understands.

However, she's still a little unsure about being set up with another version of Lucas. Brooke swears that Nathan is not Lucas, Jr. and, although she has some misgivings, Haley trusts her best friend.

And _of course_ she has to be running late for her date. Brooke kept her trapped at her house getting ready for far too long, causing Haley to get stuck in traffic and then, once she made it downtown, she got hopelessly loss among the various one-way streets before miraculously stumbling across the restaurant. She flies into the restaurant, offering what she's sure is a rambling apology. Even in her ramble, she can't help but notice Nathan's striking good looks and the kindness and sincerity radiating from his eyes.

Maybe Brooke was right after all.

They sit at the restaurant and talk for hours, both ignoring their food as they learn about each other. Haley finds herself confiding in Nathan, with things she's never told anyone, not even Brooke. Even as she wonders at the instantaneous connection she feels with the man sitting across from her, she knows that whatever the explanation, it feels _right_. It feels right that she is sitting here with Nathan, lost in the deep blue of his eyes, as she talks about the loneliness she felt growing up, even surrounded by six siblings, how she has felt a bit disconnected from the world., and how he confides in her about his turbulent relationship with his father and how he's afraid it's left him broken and shattered. She finds herself confessing her insecurities and vulnerabilities brought on by previous relationships and how those relationships have left her feeling like she isn't worthy to be loved, and yet, even as she tells him, she feels something in her shifting, awakening.

Their hands somehow intertwine during their conversation, and Haley marvels at how natural it is. She has never felt such excitement with another person, or such certainty that she is where she is meant to be. She has never experienced such an emotional bond with someone so immediately. In her previous relationships, it always felt that the emotion was a one-way street, that she gave and gave and gave but never received. In the few hours she has spent with Nathan, it's as if an invisible cord has tethered their hearts together, a bond as deep and as true as she has ever felt. It's strange and exciting and new and exhilarating.

He is like no one she has ever met, and she can't imagine her life without him now. It's ridiculous, she knows that. She has never been one for flights of fancy, of wild, impulsive behavior but with Nathan, she feels like she can be that person. She _wants_ to be that with him, for him. She feels alive, truly alive, maybe for the first time ever. And it's all because of the man—the handsome, bright, funny, compassionate, amazing man—sitting before her. It's everything about him, from his gentle grin to his laughter to the warmth in his voice as he talks about his relationship with Lucas to the amused exasperation when he speaks of Brooke. The strength and gentleness of his hand as it encloses her own. The tenderness and affection that shines from his eyes.

It's everything she never thought she needed.

When the waiter tells them the restaurant is closing, Haley is struck by a pang of sadness that the date is over. She doesn't want to leave, she doesn't want Nathan to leave. Not now. Not ever.

It's scary how right that feels.

They stand and make their way to the entrance, both reluctant to leave. They walk slowly toward her car, and on the way, Nathan notices a small park just beyond the restaurant's parking lot, directing her attention to it.

"Take a walk with me?" He asks.

"Always," she replies before placing her arm through his.

They walk in silence as they approach a small gazebo in the middle of the park. Haley wonders what he's feeling, if it's anything like what she is experiencing. She hopes, prays he is because to be the only one to feel such an instant connection, to believe that one's entire life has changed in only a few hours, would devastate her.

The silence is broken by Nathan's hesitant question.

"Haley?"

"Hmm?"

"Do you trust me?"

The question surprises her but she answers anyway. It's amazing how much she trusts him. "Yes. I know we've only just met, but I do, Nathan."

"Okay, so I tell you something, you'll trust that it's the truth?"

"Of course."

"I've never felt this before, this… instant emotional connection with someone. You make me feel alive, like I've just woken up from a long sleep. It's scary, the things I'm thinking and feeling, but it's exhilarating at the same time. I-I love you, Haley. We only met several hours ago, and I know this sounds crazy and unbelievable and just… something out of a movie or something, but I do. I've never felt this before, this wild, uncontrollable rush of emotions that leave me shaking yet completely calm and at peace. I love you," he finishes with a smile.

For a long moment all she can hear is the blood pounding in her ears. She can't believe what he just said, how much it echoes everything she has thought since they met only hours ago. She stares at him, searching for the truth of his words in his eyes. It would completely break her if he didn't mean it. But she finds the answer she needs in his eyes and responds the only way possible.

"I love you, too."

Nathan laughs, a carefree, ecstatic laugh, and she joins him. The entire night has been amazing and so different from anything she has ever experienced. But it's perfect, it's exactly the way it is meant to be.

His grip tightens on hers and immediately she knows her life is about to change forever. She doesn't know how she knows, she couldn't explain it if she tried, but somehow, deep in her soul, she knows what is about to happen.

Taking a deep breath, Nathan asks the only question she'll ever need.

"Haley, will you marry me?"

She can't answer, so overwhelmed with how _right_ this feels, that all she can do is smile. It's all the answer he'll ever need.

 _iv._

She never imagined she'd see him again. Not after the way they ended. She wanted to, oh how she wanted to, but after high school, he went one way, to Duke and the NBA and all the success in the world, she went another, to Stanford and music and longing for him every single day, and never the twain shall meet.

They broke up in high school for the typical high school reasons: they were going to different schools. Haley wanted the college she had been dreaming of since she first visited as a child; Nathan wanted the path that had been drilled into his head by his domineering father.

They loved each other, they loved each desperately and fully and completely, but they were stupid kids who thought that losing their own dreams wasn't worth the risk.

But Haley knew their love was worth losing Stanford, but there was a part of her that couldn't risk it. She was scared. Nathan was destined for great and wonderful things, and she was afraid that she wouldn't be enough for him, that eventually he would leave for something, someone better. She was too scared to fight for them. And so they broke up and went their separate ways and not a day went by that she didn't regret it.

Stanford was a dream, but it wasn't _the_ dream. Still, if she couldn't have Nathan, she would live her life as best she could, and for a while she succeeded. She found a passion for teaching music and pursued that passion with determination. She made friends, she even dated, but thoughts of a raven haired boy with piercing blue eyes and a smirk that left her breathless were never far from her mind. She thought eventually thoughts of Nathan would fade away, until he became a gentle remembrance of high school, but the ache of missing him only grew stronger.

Her life was…stable. Happy even, but she couldn't ignore the niggling voice inside that said she could have been so much happier. But Nathan was living his life, the women and money and wild adventure splashed across the tabloids. So she soldiered on, graduating from Stanford with honors and soon found a job teaching music at a local elementary school and she was content. For a while.

But the ache of missing Nathan remained. Although she wanted to reach out to Nathan, she knew that he wouldn't want her, not some elementary school teacher when he had his share of beautiful models draped on his arm. No matter how much she wanted to tell him that she missed him, that she still loved him, she knew their time was in the past.

As the ache of missing her family and friends grew stronger, she decided to move back to Tree Hill. She needed the stability, the comfort of home. She liked her life in California but it wasn't home.

It wasn't Nathan.

She's still settling into her new house when her world is turned upside down and forever changed after she runs into Nathan at the grocery store. She didn't know that his life had changed, that dream of the NBA and money and success was nothing but an empty shell without her. She didn't know he missed her with a physical ache that kept him up at nights. She didn't know that he had never stopped loving her, had never stopped missing her with every fiber of his being. She didn't know that he had moved home to find a stillness he hadn't felt since the last time she was in his arms.

She didn't know any of that, couldn't have known any of that because they hadn't talked since the day they broke up. She speaks to him again for the first time in ten years when his cart bumps into hers in the produce section. Her heart stops when she glances into the eyes that haunted her dreams for the past ten years and only starts beating again when she hears his voice.

"Haley?"

"Nathan?"

She is sure she is hallucinating because she can't believe that Nathan, her Nathan, is standing in front of her. Everything she feels for him, the want, the ache, the need, rushes over her as she stares at him, this familiar stranger before her. He is so familiar that she feels like a giddy high school junior again, but he is also so different that all she can think about is how she wants to know this new Nathan. How she wants to love this new Nathan.

In that moment, everything crystallizes for her: he is what's missing in her life, and without him, her life isn't complete.

She wants to know this new Nathan, and she wants him to know the new Haley. She wants to tell him about her time in California, how it changed her, how it made her stronger. She wants to know what happened in his life, what brought him back to Tree Hill.

He starts rambling, about how he wants to know everything that has happened to her, and he wants to tell her the good, the bad and the ugly with his life. How he's fucked up, how he's changed, how he misses every single goddamn day. How he loved her then, how he loves her still. How he can make her happy, he knows he can, because that's all he wants to do. Love her and make her happy and have a dozen babies that look like her, with her smile and her eyes and her musical ability and her compassion and grace and strength. How he wants to marry her, how's he dreamed of marrying her since he was sixteen years old.

And it's everything she has ever wanted to hear and everything she has ever wanted to say to him.

"Yes," she says, "Yes, Nathan." She smiles, tears slipping down her cheeks as she repeats the one word that has suddenly made her whole.

 _v._

"I could love you forever," Nathan whispers to her as they lay on his bed, the rain that soaked their clothing as they ran back to his apartment pounding against the bedroom window.

He says it as if it's the only truth he knows.

"So could I," Haley answers him in the only way she can.

Their relationship has been building to this moment, and as he tells her that she is his family now, she can feel the air shift and change around them. There is some undefinable tension in her stomach that tells her that her life is about to change forever.

She welcomes it with open arms.

Still, she is shocked when he asks her to marry him. She blushes prettily, her disbelief at his request clear on her face. When he doesn't take it back, doesn't crack a joke to ease the tension, when she realizes he means it, she turns serious.

"Because. . . we're in high school," she protests.

"So what? I'm emancipated." He has apparently learned his lessons from Tutor Girl because he is seemingly prepared to counter any excuse she throws at him.

"Is this about sex, because I want to wait?" She knows that is an issue between them, more so on her end because it's still hard for her to believe that Nathan Scott wants _her_. He loves her just as much as she loves him, and although she knows that deep in her soul, it's still a bit mind-blowing.

But her mind is still on his question, and while her mind is debating the pros and cons, her heart is screaming to say yes. He smirks because he can tell she's weakening and for a moment, she is annoyed that her boy can read her so well.

"No, I can see you caving on that one already," he smugly replies, breaking the tension in the air. Although she knows he is serious about this, she appreciate his attempt at humor.

She grins at his response but quickly protests again that they can't get married, that couples don't get married in high school. It's not normal. But when have they ever been normal?

"So? I'm not normal," Nathan tells her. "What I'm feeling is definitely not normal and to be honest with you, Haley, I don't ever want to be normal. Not with you. "I'm serious."

"I know you are," Haley reassures him. She knows how much he means this, and she knows that whenever she sees him, he's the one she wants to spend the rest of her life with. She knows that no one has ever loved her like he has and that she has never loved anyone like him. She knows that while conventional wisdom says that she should say, that they are too young to know what they want or what the future holds, she knows that all she sees is him. She knows that their love is different, more honest and true and real than anyone could know.

She knows she loves him and that is all she needs to know.

He repeats his earlier vow of loving her forever and she repeats the same.

"So then why can't forever start today?"

And it's really as simple as that. He loves her, she loves him, and that won't change in six months, a year or ten years. He wants forever with her and she with him.

Who knew that forever would start on a rainy afternoon while in high school?

 _fin_


End file.
